


wicked as a bee

by shihadchick



Category: Letterkenny (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:34:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21831502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shihadchick/pseuds/shihadchick
Summary: Tanis isn't afraid to escalate.
Relationships: Tanis/Wayne
Comments: 20
Kudos: 66
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	wicked as a bee

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ashling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashling/gifts).



> happy yuletide, Ashling! i hope you enjoy this.
> 
> title is, of course, from the rheostatics, for Peak CanCon.

Tanis isn't afraid to escalate.

It's true enough and everyone knows it, but they don't all know they know it, you know?

But it's the easiest thing about her, a woman who isn't easy at all, except when she wants to be. Just stand up straight, meet your eyes and tuck her hair behind her ears so as she can see ya, and then you know where ya stand.

Of course, if it's on her turf when she doesn't want you to be there, then you're not standing for a whole lot longer.

* * *

The trick about escalating that everyone knows is: bigger. Louder. Harder.

Tanis has got jokes about all three of those words and some of them are even fit for polite society, not that there's much of that around Letterkenny, except occasionally for Wayne and the hicks, and even then it's like they'd want to qualify. 

And she's said a couple of those words about Wayne in her time, when he's earned them.

When he escalates right back.

The thing most people miss about escalating is to do it effectively, you've got to understand exactly how it works and Tanis isn't about putting in the time unless it's worth her while.

* * *

The hard right assholes and their bullshit is an easy one, an easy win, a face so soft and punchable that Tanis is only wringing her hand out after for the look of things, for the way that being dropped and dismissed so easy crumples up the Nazi fucker even more effectively than her fist had done. He's going to be wearing the imprint of her rings for a while, too; rock and metal across the landscape of his face and how's that sharing working out for ya now, eh?

Tanis and her crew don't so much practice violence as know damn well that they're very good at it, when they need to be.

* * *

Things escalate with Wayne a couple times, if she's being honest, and Tanis is, with herself.

She'll bullshit you every day and twice on a Sunday and if you're paying up you'd best be correct about it, but when it's knowing herself then Tanis will look at that mirror head on and recognize what she's got to know. And maybe fix her eyeliner, for something else to do. 

But for all that she's not sure where it's going—other than to a bed, or some kind of flat surface, _obviously_ —it's not like she's going to think about saying no.

It's a fine day for Thunder Bay and the fireworks aren't the only things going off, know what she's saying?

But that first time, it was all impatience—hers—and a little more gentleness than she quite expected—his—and then it was all happening and kept on happening until she was fine and ready to be done, and they did, and Tanis lay there thinking, "I'd do that again."

What she said was "I'd have a smoke," and they did that too, companionable as anything. 

It was free and easy and didn't have to mean anything more than it did, and so that added up to didn't mean much of anything, or so they could tell themselves in the cold light of rosy-fingered dawn, one last touch before they'd part back to their own worlds. 

Of course, that couldn't last.

* * *

Perhaps it wasn't quite right in the head to keep on boning down with a man whose sister kicked you a good one in the box a while back, but Tanis could respect seizing the moment and the day and the tactical value of a bolt from the blue or at least the one swearing a blue streak.

It wasn't like she wouldn't have done the same for one of her boys.

But there she was, and there he was, again and again until once turned into twice and then a few and a couple more. And then without a name for it you were a couple and that was just how it was. Sleeping with turned to sleepovers turned ideas over and after some negotiation and illumination and prevarication and maybe a little procrastination it ended up there was more than one way to get a fist on the toughest guy in Letterkenny and he'd thank you for it in the morning. 

They did just fine in the sack and had as much fun outside it, and there wasn't much of anyone else off the rez that Tanis'd have at her back in a scrap, but when it came down to brass tacks, she couldn't deny that both of them were aimin to make tracks.

There were some benefits in the interim, and no reason to stop enjoying those even if it wasn't likely that they'd be heading down the road to a wedding or homesteading and Tanis was just fine with that thank you very much.

A man who ate his steak that enthusiastically was worth a minute or two's rest, not that he'd let her lie that long unless she'd asked for it.

Stretching her legs out at the fruit stand was a change of pace from the usual, for all that they'd had their disagreements over the years, and after a time Darry and Dan stopped mentioning about that time they'd burned it down. There was a kind of peace to having bygones gone by, the sun burning hot overhead and endless hay waving in the fields where the hardest question to tackle was "How's your beer?"

So Tanis could fit in there but Tanis could fit anywhere, could make a space for herself all elbows to ears like she was on the ice instead of taking any shit from anyone, and it wasn't like she'd mind a fight but occasionally it made a change to not need to have one.

Of course, then they'd all get bored and be scrapping just for something to do, but that wasn't exactly unfamiliar after all this time either.

Wayne'd grow pigtails before admitting he was pulling them, but Tanis could yank right back without waiting for that Canadian Heritage Minute.

* * *

The handcuffs, in hindsight, had possibly been a mistake, or at least the leaving them out—the kitchen was clean and well lit and you could eat off the floor if ya had to, and Wayne _had_ , her Friday night taco special and all—but all things considered they hadn't considered who'd be next in line to show up bright and early for breakfast expecting next to nothing that exhibitionist on display. 

Darry had picked them up and just twirled em around his finger like Bonnie McMurray doing ballet, the kind of grin on his face that said thirteen jokes were jockeying for position and the innuendo Olympic torch was lighting up in all their eyes. 

"So you're sayin," Katy said, adjusting the strap of her bikini top and Tanis looked too because she wasn't made of stone, "You were up Schitt's Creek with a paddling?"

"You were huffin' and puffin' on account of the cuffin'," Squirrelly Dan put in, too quick if Darry's snort at the words being taken right out of his mouth was any indication.

"It was the tournament of hearts and you landed right on that button," Katy suggested, and she lifted her mug of coffee in salute. 

"You had a real stiff one as an aperitif," Darry added with a grin that was aiming for lewd and landing a couple two fours short, and Squirrelly Dan opened his mouth to set off another round but Wayne's big hand reached over the table to pluck the cuffs outta Darry's hand as he said, "And back to choring."

"All I'm saying is you'd best have cleaned up after," Katy said darkly, as if they wouldn't have, and that was that on that.

* * *

Wayne cleaned up pretty good, a man whose pants fit tight and right, and for all that they didn't fight at weddings Tanis'd be the first to say her blood was up after they blew the joint, showing those City-idiots the errors of all their ways and means. 

And they were in it for a good time and maybe a longer time than originally forecast but Tanis'd read the weather and dress for it just fine, and so they'd danced afterwards, cheek to cheek her arms slung around his neck, and she'd thought about doing this some more, higher further faster and thought, yeah, this was her kind of escalation.


End file.
